The Tuberculosis and AIDS Control Project aims to contain the growth of the epidemics of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS in the short term and halt and reverse the courses of these epidemics in the medium term. This first-ever countrywide TB and HIV/AIDS project in Russia was introduced in 2003 as the country was experiencing one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV/AIDS epidemics that threatens the health of its citizens and the economy. Russia is one of the 22 high-burden countries for TB in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and TB is thought to be present in a dormant form in about 80 percent of Russia’s population.
The project, in partnership with WHO and the Global Fund, supports improvement in policies, strategies and protocols for TB control; strengthens surveillance, monitoring, and quality assurance; improves the detection and treatment of TB cases. Now the strategy has been expanded to cover the 86 regions of the country, and initial results show that with project support since 2004, 85% of cases follow a standardized treatment regimen; a leveling off or a 5% decrease of new TB cases has been achieved; as well as a 5% decrease in TB mortality compared to 2005.
